Written Communication Apr 1999

Genre and Activity Systems: The Role of Documentation in Maintaining and Changing Engineering Activity Systems

DOROTHY A. WINSOR

Abstract

Rhetoric continues to struggle to theorize the simultaneous existence of pattern and contingency. Responses to this issue have been couched in elaborations of genre theory and, more recently, of Vygotskian activity theory. Activity theory offers two advantages in theorizing how change and continuity can coexist: It expands our ability to see how text and context influence one another and it encourages us to see that lack of unity is normal in any activity system. This study exemplifies these advantages by looking at four entry-level engineers who produced a genre they called documentation in their first 4 years at work. They defined documentation as writing that describes events to establish a common understanding of completed or promised actions. Documentation was one of the tools the participants used to create and maintain the activity system of their workplace and to reshape it as well.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
1999-04-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088399016002003
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
rhetorical criticism genre theory
Export
BibTeX RIS

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (35)

  1. Wickman (2023)
    Genre and Metagenre in Biomedical Research Writing
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  2. Tham (2022)
    Pasts and Futures of Design Thinking: Implications for Technical Communication
    IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  3. Weedon et al. (2021)
    Embodied Genres, Typified Performances, and the Engineering Design Process
    Written Communication
  4. Read (2020)
    How to Build a Supercomputer: U.S. Research Infrastructure and the Documents Th…
    Written Communication
  5. Read (2019)
    The Infrastructural Function: A Relational Theory of Infrastructure for Writing…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Show all 35 →
  1. Bivens et al. (2018)
    Coordinating Distributed Memory: An Environmental Engineer’s Proposal-Writing P…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  2. Angeli et al. (2017)
    Responding to public health crises: bridging collective mindfulness and user ex…
    Communication Design Quarterly
  3. Jones (2016)
    Found Things: Genre, Narrative, and Identification in a Networked Activist Orga…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  4. Read (2016)
    The Net Work Genre Function
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  5. Wickman (2015)
    Locating the Semiotic Power of Writing in Science
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  6. Tachino (2012)
    Theorizing Uptake and Knowledge Mobilization: A Case for Intermediary Genre
    Written Communication
  7. Converse (2012)
    Unpoetic Justice: Ideology and the Individual in the Genre of the Presentence I…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  8. Dannels (2009)
    Features of Success in Engineering Design Presentations: A Call for Relational …
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  9. Pickering (2009)
    Student Ethos in the Online Technical Communication Classroom: Diverse Voices
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  10. Markel (2009)
    Time and Exigence in Temporal Genres
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  11. Dannels et al. (2008)
    Critiquing Critiques: A Genre Analysis of Feedback Across Novice to Expert Desi…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  12. Popham et al. (2008)
    A Structural Analysis of Coherence in Electronic Charts in Juvenile Mental Health
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  13. Ding (2008)
    The Use of Cognitive and Social Apprenticeship to Teach a Disciplinary Genre: I…
    Written Communication
  14. Warnock et al. (2007)
    Expressive/Exploratory Technical Writing (XTW) in Engineering: Shifting the Tec…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  15. Bremner (2006)
    Politeness, Power, and Activity Systems: Written Requests and Multiple Audience…
    Written Communication
  16. Winsor (2006)
    Using Writing to Structure Agency: An Examination of Engineers' Practice
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  17. Dayton (2006)
    A Hybrid Analytical Framework to Guide Studies of Innovative IT Adoption by Wor…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  18. Ford et al. (2006)
    Teaching the Role of Language in Managing Organizational Change: The Sunwest An…
    IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  19. Luzon (2005)
    Genre Analysis in Technical Communication
    IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  20. Anderson (2004)
    The Textualizing Functions of Writing for Organizational Change
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  21. Barton (2004)
    Discourse Methods and Critical Practice in Professional Communication: The Fron…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  22. Dannels (2003)
    Teaching and Learning Design Presentations in Engineering: Contradictions betwe…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  23. Tardy (2003)
    A Genre System View of the Funding of Academic Research
    Written Communication
  24. Spinuzzi (2002)
    Toward Integrating Our Research Scope: A Sociocultural Field Methodology
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  25. GEISLER (2001)
    Textual Objects: Accounting for the Role of Texts in the Everyday Life of Compl…
    Written Communication
  26. BERKENKOTTER (2001)
    Genre Systems at Work: DSM-IV and Rhetorical Recontextualization in Psychothera…
    Written Communication
  27. Geisler et al. (2001)
    IText: Future Directions for Research on the Relationship between Information T…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  28. Yli-Jokipii (2001)
    The local and the global: an exploration into the Finnish and English Websites …
    IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  29. HERNDL et al. (2000)
    Research as Social Practice: A Case Study of Research on Technical and Professi…
    Written Communication
  30. Dannels (2000)
    Learning to Be Professional: Technical Classroom Discourse, Practice, and Profe…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication

References (31) · 6 in this index

  1. Agar, M.
    Using computers in qualitative research
  2. Barabas, C. (1993)
    Technical Communication
  3. Bazerman, C.
    Shaping written knowledge: The genre and activity of the experimental article in science
  4. 10.1207/s15327884mca0404_6
     ↗
  5. 10.1177/016224399702200401
     ↗
Show all 31 →
  1. Berkenkotter, C.
    Genre knowledge in disciplinary communication: Cognition/culture/power
     ↗
  2. Brown, P.
    Politeness: Some universals in language usage
  3. Cole, M.
    Distributed cognitions: Psychological and educational considerations
  4. Engstrom, Y.
    Learning, working, and imagining: Twelve studies in activity theory
  5. GUNNARSSON (1997)
    The Writing Process from a Sociolinguistic Viewpoint
    Written Communication
  6. Haraway, D. J.
    The disunity of science: Boundaries, contexts, power
  7. Henderson, P. G.
    Electronic literacies in the workplace
  8. Kent, T.
    Paralogic rhetoric: A theory of communicative interaction
  9. Latour, B.
    Science in action: How to follow scientists and engineers through society
  10. Latour, B.
    The pasteurization of France
  11. Latour, B.
    Aramis or the love of technology
  12. Lave, J.
    Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation
  13. Law, J.
    Organizing modernity
  14. 10.1177/030631298028003003
     ↗
  15. Miles, M. B.
    Qualitative data analysis
  16. 10.1080/00335638409383686
     ↗
  17. PRIOR (1994)
    Response, Revision, Disciplinarity: A Microhistory of a Dissertation Prospectus…
    Written Communication
  18. RUSSELL (1997)
    Rethinking Genre in School and Society: An Activity Theory Analysis
    Written Communication
  19. SCHRYER (1993)
    Records as Genre
    Written Communication
  20. 10.1111/j.1475-682X.1974.tb01159.x
     ↗
  21. SULLIVAN (1997)
    Dysfunctional Workers, Functional Texts: The Transformation of Work in Institut…
    Written Communication
  22. Swales, J.
    Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings
     ↗
  23. Winsor, D. A. (1990)
    IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  24. WINSOR (1994)
    Invention and Writing in Technical Work: Representing the Object
    Written Communication
  25. Winsor, D. A.
    Writing like an engineer: A rhetorical education
  26. Yates, J.
    Control through communication: The rise of system in American management
CrossRef global citation count: 68 View in citation network → Build reading path →

Related Articles

  1. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly Mar 2026
    The National Security Strategy as an Object of Business Communication ↗
    Philip W. Hayek
    rhetorical criticism genre theory professional writing
  2. Written Communication Feb 2026
    Stance in REF Submissions: Authorial Positioning in Impact Narratives ↗
    Ken Hyland; Feng (Kevin) Jiang
    rhetorical criticism genre theory argument assessment
  3. Res Rhetorica Jan 2026
    Meksykańska literatura prekolumbijska a konotacje genologiczno-retoryczne Europy ↗
    Beata Gaj
    rhetorical criticism genre theory
  4. Res Rhetorica Jan 2026
    Ethos – between vir bonus and VIA: Virtue ethics in contemporary rhetorical education ↗
    Agnieszka Budzyńska-Daca
    classical rhetoric modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism genre theory argument
  5. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Jan 2026
    Constructing Transnational Security Logics: The Representation of Mothers and Communities in Global Maternal Health Narratives ↗
    Priyanka Ganguly
    rhetorical criticism genre theory